Book Review: The Temple Mount Code

 The Temple Mount Code is a thriller. Charles Brokaw, who wrote The Temple Mount Code, is a New York Times bestselling author. This is the third in Brokaw’s “Code” series. Before this, he wrote The Atlantis Code and The Lucifer Code. But this is the first book I’ve read by him.

The story starts off with Professor Thomas Lourds heading to a dig in China. He’s not there very long, just long enough to make a discovery, before he heads off to Jerusalem at the request of a friend. And from there to the end of the book, it’s a race to stay alive and save people around him. Oh, and to find what everyone is looking for and willing to kill for … Mohammad’s Koran.

The dig in China is very interesting, but once Lourds heads out to find his friend who seems to be in trouble, the pace and action races. It reminded me of The Da Vinci Code, as far as the scholarly knowledge Lourds has, but it also reminded me of a thriller movie with the fast pace, chases, fights, and exotic settings. Since Professor Lourds has starred in Brokaw’s other books, you can guess that he will survive, but it’s all bets off on everyone else. There are also some formidable women in the book. I especially liked Miriam.

Lourds is smart like Robert Langdon, can fight like Jason Bourne, and loves like James Bond. Roll them together and you’ve got a moo-vie! (That’s my prediction, anyway.)

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Powell’s Books

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FTC Disclaimer: The Temple Mount Code was sent to me by Alexis Saarela with Forge Publicity. That did not influence my review. Although I have to admit, it’s cool to get a book sent to me from New York. But not as cool as getting a book all the way from South Africa, which I did when Lauri Kubuitsile sent me her book! As you can surmise, I like books set in new-to-me locations. Although… The Temple Mount Code takes you to places you’d probably rather not go in real life. Places even scarier than a college dorm bathroom.

Donna Fletcher Crow

 Donna Fletcher Crow is the author of 30-some books, mostly novels dealing with British history. The award-winning Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England is her best-known work, a grail search epic beginning with the birth of Christ and going through the Reformation. She’s won numerous awards, including First Place in Historical Fiction by the National Federation of Press Women. Her newest book, A Very Private Grave, comes out this year, first in the UK and then in the US.

She’s here today to talk about what it means to be published in two different countries. She has a lot to say about how the dual publication affects editing, promotion and even paying taxes.

Welcome Donna Fletcher Crow!

Swimming the Pond

As I enter this exciting and scary world of virtual book tours I'm still smiling about the irony of talking about an ecclesiastical thriller on a blog named "Straight from Hel." And I must say any qualms I might have had were much soothed when I opened the blog and found fields of Texas bluebells and Helen's charming smile welcoming me. Thank you so much, Helen, for hosting me.

Since A VERY PRIVATE GRAVE, Book 1 in The Monastery Murders series released in the UK on June 1, just in time for their National Crime Fiction Week, June 14-19, and since the US release won't come around until the end of September, the whole split personality feeling of doing business on both sides of the water is much on my mind.

First, a word about the story. Felicity Howard, a wide-eyed, strong-willed, full-steam-ahead young American woman, who found teaching Latin to London school children boring, takes herself off to remotest Yorkshire to study in a theological college run by monks. Well, what else can she do with a classics degree? When her favorite monk is brutally murdered and Felicity finds her church history lecturer with blood all over his hands the fun really begins.

So I have a very American heroine in a very English setting .(I always have American heroines when using contemporary English settings— it gives me an excuse for the inevitable mistakes.) And, surprise, surprise, when I had my first telephone conversation with my new agent whom I had only met electronically, I discovered that she is English, living in America. So we quickly agreed that, given the fact that the ecclesiastical thriller subgenre is primarily an English invention, an English publisher would be the way to go.

I have been absolutely thrilled with the process. Of course, as we all know, the Internet puts the world at our fingertips, greatly simplifying such international alliances. Perhaps I should mention at this point that, although I have published 30-some books, I had been out of circulation for a decade. That made publishing A VERY PRIVATE GRAVE like starting a whole new career. Ten years ago contracts didn't mention electronic rights. Manuscripts were sent in hard copy. Editors sent notes on little yellow post-um notes. Authors didn't have web sites or blogs or Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. . . "O wonder! . . .O brave new world, That has such people in't!"

Other than the fact that the ground had shifted under my feet, and that my husband spent months trying to get the IRS to certify with the Inland Revenue that I am a US taxpayer, the first substantial difference I noticed was in the editing process. Never in 30 years in the business have I been edited so thoroughly. I can only hope that my editor in Oxford got paid something near what she was worth (as if anyone in this business does) because she did a simply heroic job and by answering all the questions she raised I believe the story was dramatically improved. And then the copy editor didn't merely correct my capitalization and comma usage, but had her own substantive questions. I hope I was able to communicate my appreciation to them.

And now I'm working with two publicists and two release dates, wanting the English release to be a success, but not able to get there to do any events or signings on site and with my American publicist warning me not to do too much advance promotion because it will just irritate people who can't get the book yet and will forget about it by September. And with my American enthusiasms I have the feeling I'm driving my very polite and very understated English publicist quietly mad as he has to explain to me yet again that "That really isn't done here as it is in America." It's a bit of a tightrope walk stretched over a very wide pond, but I'm loving every minute of it.

And if you're reading this in America, please, please put your name on the "notify me when it's available" list on Amazon so my American publicist won't be mad at me.

P. S. Helen has kindly invited me back after the US release, so we can see how it's all working out then.

Thank you, Donna!

Donna will be back in October to talk about the U.S. release of A Very Private Grave. I’m looking forward to that.

Donna is an enthusiastic gardener and you can see pictures of her garden and watch the book trailer at her website. At her site, you can also order A Very Private Grave in either country by clicking either Amazon (for the US version) or Amazon UK.

Feel free to ask her about her cross-continents publications, writing historicals, or what she’s working on next.

Swimming the Pond

 Even though we speak the same language, all things are not the same when it comes to the U.S. and the UK. Those differences can have a huge effect on writers who hope to get published on both continents.

Tomorrow, author Donna Fletcher Crow is going to stop by and talk about her life as an American who writes books set in the UK. Since Donna’s primary publisher is in the UK, her next book will premiere first in England, then in the US. She’ll cover topics like what this means when it comes to taxes, editing, and promoting.

Donna has published thirty books. Her latest, which comes out June 1 in the UK and in September in the U.S., is called A Very Private Grave, Book 1 in the Monastery Murders series. Because of the different release dates on two different continents, Donna probably feels like she’s wearing different hats to do the what would appear to be the same job, but, in many ways, isn’t.

Here’s a blurb about A Very Private Grave:

Felicity Howard, a young American studying for the Anglican priesthood at the College of the Transfiguration in Yorkshire, is devastated when she finds her beloved Father Dominic bludgeoned to death and Father Antony, her church history lecturer, soaked in his blood...

A Very Private Grave is a contemporary novel with a thoroughly modern heroine who must learn some ancient truths in order to solve the mystery and save her own life as she and Father Antony flee a murderer and follow clues that take them to out-of-the way sites in northern England and southern Scotland. The narrative skillfully mixes detection, intellectual puzzles, spiritual aspiration, romance, and the solving of clues ancient and modern.

I’m looking forward to hearing what she has to say, what the process has been like, and some differences she’s seen. You can also take a look at the book trailer.

You can leave a question for her today - and come back tomorrow to read her post. You’ll probably have even more questions then! (A shout-out to BFF Sally Baker for cropping photos for me while I await new software after a computer crash. )

Going Home

You can go back, but it’s never the same.

I spent the first ten years of my life in a small house in Smyrna, Georgia. After that, my mother moved us to Texas and I’ve been here since. My father lived in that house for many years afterward. I went back inside once or twice, the last time years ago when my next older sister and I went out there to take care of my father. After we got him out of the hospital, we arranged for him to come to Texas to live near us.

At that time, I was an adult looking back at her childhood home. I was floored by how different it looked through grown up eyes. I knew the house was small, but now I realized it was really small. As a child, I had taken it for granted. As an adult, I admired that Dad had built by hand part of it, and how small it must have been before he added on that part.

When I was very young, my mother didn’t sit me or my sisters down in front of the TV. We were sent outside to play in the woods next to our home. I remember running through the trees, entertaining myself, for hours. And yet, when I went back, I saw how small and sparse those “woods” were. At the time, they had been, in my eyes, huge – a forest to play in. Knowing they weren’t didn’t alter my memories or emotions, but it did show me how perspective changes as we age.

I wrote about those woods and that house, letting them be seen through the eyes of a young girl, then showing the change in perspective when the girl returned home as a woman.

On a more recent cross-the-south trip my husband and I took, I re-visited that house. The changes this time around were even bigger – and final.

My husband and I were in South Carolina and the next day we were scheduled to fly out of Atlanta. Try as we might, we couldn’t get back to Atlanta before dark. Smyrna had changed so radically, we ended up having to get a map just to find the area. Once we got close, though, I easily directed him where to turn. That surprised me since it had been so long since my last visit and I had been very young when I actually lived there.

We turned up the street and there was the little house. Except it wasn’t the little house I lived in. The last time I’d seen it, my father still lived there so it was as I remembered it. Now other people lived there. Even the street number had changed.

Because the new people had lights on, I could see the changes. It looked like they’d done some remodeling, enlarging it a little on the side that Dad had added on. The giant holly bush was gone. The driveway had been paved. Siding was up.

The woods were still there. No one had built in that area. I wondered why not, but was glad to see them still there. The area behind my old house, where there used to be a drive-in theatre, looked dark. The rest of the neighborhood seemed welcoming. Still small houses, but well-kept. Before getting there, I half-expected to see bigger homes, the area gentrified or McSized. It’s probably coming.

We sat in the car in front of the house for a while, then I directed him to my old elementary school, about a mile from the house. It, too, had changed. No longer a small building; it was now a complex. I doubt kids still walk to school as we did. That quiet road is now a fast-moving thoroughfare.

It was very different seeing it this time – this last time, I expect. Before that, when we went to get my father, it was still my home. Now it’s someone else’s home. It’s been altered physically, not just by the passing of time and maturation of the child.

It’s something to remember when you’re writing a scene where a person goes home again. Things change not just with time and alterations, but because of perspective, emotions and attachment people and characters have toward the “thing.”

You can go back. But it’s not back to your past. It’s back to someone else’s future. 

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

Today we have author and motivational speaker L. Diane Wolfe visiting with us. If you didn't get a chance to watch the book trailer for her teen series, The Circle of Friends, you can still swing by, or visit her website for information on all five books, the latest of which is called Heather.

Diane is here today to urge all of us to step out of our comfort zone as writers. And if there's anyone who can get us to do that, it's Spunk on a Stick.

Welcome, L. Diane Wolfe.

Getting Out of Our Comfort Zone

New writers often hear, “Write what you know.” That’s good advice when just starting. Writing about familiar subjects provides confidence so we can focus on our writing skills.

However, if we want to develop, we need to stretch a little. Writing is all about growth. When we break away from predictable, we discover new things about ourselves. We prevent our readers and fans from growing bored. We provide our careers with a little longevity. Therefore, it’s essential we escape our comfort zone and enter unchartered territory.

By changing one or more of these aspects, we’ll stretch our writing muscles:

• Subject matter or genre. Writing outside of our niche induces growth. We grow complacent writing about the same topic over and over again. Consider tackling a new genre. Mastered mystery? Try an urban fantasy. Content with romances? Attempt a horror story. Tech writer? Move into motivational work. For the ultimate challenge, move between fiction and non-fiction.

• Characters. Often we begin with characters similar in feel to ourselves. However, what happens when we create someone who possesses different traits and views? It forces us to see the world in a whole new light. It helps us to create diversity in characters. Book V of my series forced me to stretch in this manner, as Heather was my polar opposite. She kicked my butt throughout the entire process, too! The story was stronger because of that fact, though, and I am now eager to tackle another difficult character.

• Setting. A location we know intimately provides accuracy and security, but unless ‘world traveler’ is on our resume, we’ll find ourselves stuck in the same setting. What happens if we move from the city to the country? Or to the beach? Or to another world? Setting applies to our character’s profession as well. Instead of a lawyer, what happens if we focus on a stock car driver? Or a foreign tour guide? Changing the setting ensures research, but we will learn so much in the process - and the freshness of our ideas will come across in our writing.

• Conflicts. These can grow stale and formula. Break out of the pattern and brew up some new struggles. Our resources are unlimited, too. There’s no end to life’s problems! The daily news can provide ideas for new conflicts, challenges, and sticky scenarios. Remember, fact is always stranger than fiction - we’ll discover new issues and concepts if we look.

• Storyline. This is a big one! Often we find out storylines contain similar themes. Boy meets girl. Someone is murdered. Evil plans to take over world. We can easily fall into a rut. Consider a new path. Brainstorm some fresh ideas. We always need new twists and turns, but deviating from our normal storyline or plot forces us to mature as writers. We prove we are not just one trick ponies!

Now that we know what to change, it’s time to stretch!

And in doing so, we will probably discover our best work is produced outside of our comfort zone.

Thank you, Diane.

Sounds doable to me. Who knew stretching was good for your writing and your body!

You can find out about Diane as an author and a speaker by visiting her sites:

http://www.spunkonastick.net

http://www.thecircleoffriends.net

http://www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com

You can also buy her books on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble or at Dancing Lemur Press L.L.C.

But, right now, what you can do is ask her a question, comment on her post, or give us your own experiences with stepping out of your comfort zone.

Use Your Senses

If you're writing about a place you've never been or a setting you've never seen at the time of year you're describing, you're really at a disadvantage. You could talk to someone who lives in the area you’re describing, especially if that person is a writer and used to looking at things with a writer's eye. You can do Internet searches for information on the area. You can talk to people in chat rooms. You can look in travel books or even in other fiction books. It can be done, but there's nothing like seeing it for yourself.

That’s because the best way to get it right is to see and feel it yourself - when possible. The puffy clouds lingering among the peaks of the mountains. The white caps of the higher clouds. The light blue that radiates to a darker blue then to an almost purple.

When we describe things in our manuscripts (or our characters do), we tend to focus on what can be seen. This is natural. In a book I read, You: The Owner’s Manual, Drs. Roizen and Oz said, “Roughly 80 percent of what our brains process comes from what we see.” So, of course, we describe what we see (or what our characters see).

But sight is not the only important sense we should keep in mind when writing. We, and characters, not only see, we smell things; we feel pain, stickiness and bumps; we hear sounds, soft, loud, low, high; we taste all kinds of things, good and bad, and some in-between.

And all of these senses can trigger emotions inside. We hear a song and we’re thrown back to our teenage years. We smell bacon cooking and smile as we’re transported to our childhood. A certain unidentifiable flavor causes us to spend an hour or even days trying to remember when we once tasted it before, or it makes us gag and spit it out.

Yes, the majority of description in a book is based on sight. It’s what our brains process most. But don’t ignore the other senses, even if it means you have to go back on some round of editing and add them in.

Shaping Your Characters

As you write, keep in mind that your characters are people. They’re shaped by their experiences, just like we are. None of us popped out of a mold as we are today. And that shaping is a big part of who we are, what we believe, what we do, who we befriend, where we live, what we eat, who we trust or mistrust, what movies we prefer, and on and on.

To make your characters come alive on the page, you need to think of them as real people, shaped by their lives and their experiences.

If you accept that we are indeed shaped by our past and our experiences, then it holds that our surroundings, beliefs, friends, jobs, homes, and other things in our lives reflect those pasts and experiences.

And if you accept that your characters are people, then it holds true that the things you show about them in the book - their cars, jobs, friends, callings, propensity to get into trouble, mysteries, romances, and so on - are reflections of them.

So, rather than plunk your protagonist in a Mercedes, you have to stop and ask, would she drive such a car? Instead of putting a Monet on your antagonist’s wall, you should ask, would he even be an art enthusiast, or what kind of art would this psycho have on her living room wall to hide her safe filled with stolen money?


Look around your own office or bedroom or kitchen. Do the things there reflect you? Here’s a mermaid I have in my office. This was a present from a close friend, Terri Schexnayder. It was my first mermaid. I’ve since added two more. It clearly reflects my own past experience. Think of your protagonist. What most reflects her personality or problem? Have you included that in the book?

Susan Wittig Albert

If you were following author Susan Wittig Albert’s recent virtual book tour, then you know she stopped by Straight From Hel. You may have missed her since she was doing something quite unique. She went on a tour by re-visiting blogs she’d visited before and did re-posts by directing her tour followers to past stops on each blog.

With that in mind, if you missed her stop here, you can still read her wonderful post where she talks about setting. Susan’s China Bayles series is usually set in a small central Texas town. In her latest book called Wormwood, the 17th in the series, China leaves Texas to visit Kentucky. It’s here that Susan creates another memorable setting, as she carries us into the past and the Shaker community that once lived there. The community and their lives become vivid and compelling. You want to keep reading so you can find out what happens to them, as well as how China can solve the mystery in the present time. Both worlds are tied together in Wormwood.

So, link over and read her post on Setting, then look for Wormwood in your bookstore.

But if your name is Tim Brown, you won’t have to buy her latest mystery. You’ve won a free advance reading copy. But you only have until noon today to claim your copy of Wormwood!

A Tip for Researching Setting

Here’s an idea when you’re doing research on places or settings. Take someone with you.

Sure, they can help with navigation and taking notes on scenery as you drive ... but just as importantly, they give you a second view point.

A second set of eyes, ears, nose, and taste buds can notice things you miss. That extra person also sees the same exact thing you do, but from a different perspective. A few months ago, I went with two friends to the Blanton Museum. We wandered the second floor through room after room, from ancient Greece to modern art. We like different kinds of art; we each saw things the others didn’t see – and pointed out stuff to each other.

Have you ever gone out to eat with someone and realized you had different reactions to the same dish? A chili you thought was delicious, the other couldn’t eat because it was too spicy for them? Yet you can hardly believe anyone would have thought it hot. Someone loves the spice curry, while you hate it. I love chai lattes, especially when it has a peppery taste to it. Not everyone does, though.

Sometimes if you only rely on yourself and your senses when you explore places, restaurants, clubs, parks, museums, you miss what others see and feel. You miss how other characters might react to something. That’s because it’s not easy to think outside of your own experiences and influences.

So, if possible, when researching, take someone with you. Listen to their reactions; see things through their eyes.

Writing What Your Readers Know

We've all heard the axiom to write what you know. How about writing what your readers know.

Not too long ago, I took my laptop with me on a trip to Grapevine, Texas, for a convention. In-between meetings, I worked on an author's book. She had asked me to do a copy-edit before her agent sent it out to publishers.

The setting of the book was central Texas. One of the things I especially liked about the manuscript was that I knew the places. I had been to most of the places the author talked about. When the main character went to a coffee shop or restaurant or store, I knew exactly where she was. I could see the places in my head. I even learned some stuff about places that I didn't know.

Personally, when I write, I like to set the book in a town or place that I invent. I enjoy creating the streets, the shops, the atmosphere. I like to draw it out, put in the neighborhoods. I want to create a town so realistic that readers would think it real.

But, I have to admit, it was fun to read about the real "real" places this author let her character visit. People outside of central Texas may not recognize most of the buildings or towns in her book, but those in this area sure would. And it made me want to re-visit places and check out places I hadn't been to before.

She made each place come "alive" without spending pages describing them. She was selective in her descriptions.

To do that, you either have to be intimately acquainted with the settings -- or you have to know enough interesting and pertinent details about a place that you can convince the reader that you're knowledgeable.

The place you describe doesn't have to be accurate down to the smallest detail, but close enough that I know where I am, I feel like the author knows what she/he is talking about, and if something is there that I don't recognize, I don't close the book. I, instead, think, hmm, I don't remember that back room; I'll look for it next time I'm there.

Guest Author, Susan Wittig Albert

Today we welcome author Susan Wittig Albert. Susan not only is a friend, but an amazing author who has written more books than I can keep up with. She writes the very popular China Bayles series, the latest of which is Nightshade. She also pens the Beatrix Potter series. With her husband, she wrote the historical mystery series under the pseudonym Robin Paige. Plus, she writes nonfiction. I still remember getting her to sign Work of Her Own at the first book signing I ever went to.

Today Susan is going to talk about setting, specifically Pecan Springs, the fictional town China Bayles lives in.

Once you finish reading her post, you can add your own comments or questions. Susan is out of town today doing book events, but she’ll be back tomorrow and will check the comments. Plus, remember to sign up for a free copy of Nightshade. Welcome Susan!

Susan Wittig Albert -- Pecan Springs: The Importance of Setting

A big thanks to Helen for hosting me here at Straight from Hel today. This blog tour celebrates the launch of Nightshade, the latest China Bayles mystery. For those of you who haven’t met her, China is a former criminal defense attorney who left the rat race and moved to Pecan Springs TX, a small town at the eastern edge of the Hill Country, halfway between Austin and San Antonio. There, she owns an herb shop and tends her gardens. Of course, her life isn’t really very quiet--I’ve lost track of the dead bodies that China has stumbled across in the last sixteen books--but that’s par for the course in crime novels. And there’s a lot about Pecan Springs that runs counter to the “cozy” tag that’s often applied to these mysteries. Still, the town is a pleasant place, and I get a lot of mail from readers who confess that they’d like to live there. In this post, I’d like to talk a bit about the way I’ve used Pecan Springs as the setting for the mysteries.


A Small Town with Character . . .


I chose to set the series (my first) in a small town because I grew up in or near small towns and love them. I love the neighborliness, the concern for others, the sense of belonging to a place that has a history and its own special characteristics. All those things are true of the fictional Pecan Springs. In almost every book, there are examples of people who take their neighboring seriously and are concerned for others’ welfare, and I’ve tried to give Pecan Springs its own distinctive character.

Like other real Texas towns (Fredericksburg and New Braunfels, for instance) Pecan Springs was settled in the mid-1800s by German immigrants who built in the Old Country style (limestone block buildings, German vernacular architecture) and left their mark with foods (bratwurst, sauerkraut), beer fests, and family names. The German history is overlaid with a Mexican influence like that of San Antonio, evident in popular foods (Tex-Mex) and music. Pecan Springs has the Hill Country look: cedar-clad hills, spring-fed creeks, and mesquite-oak savannahs. There’s something for everyone, which is very handy for the writer who wants to exploit these distinctive features in her fiction.

Pecan Springs also has its claims to fame. There’s the notable courthouse (built of Texas pink granite, like the one in Wise County) and the Sophie Briggs Historical Museum (featuring a dollhouse that belonged to Lila Trumm, Miss Pecan Springs of 1936, as well as Sophie Briggs's collection of ceramic frogs and the boots Burt Reynolds wore during the filming of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.) “The Sophie Briggs Museum is a big draw in our town,” China says. “It's amazing the affection some people can feel for Burt Reynolds’ boots.” (Some of the elements of the setting invite a little humor now and then, with maybe some gentle satire.) And there’s Central Texas State University, which I included in the town because I wanted to write a mystery about the interaction of the community and the university (Hangman’s Root), and because McQuaid (China’s significant other and an ex-cop) wanted a teaching job in the Criminal Justice Department there.

And Characters

Pecan Springs, like most towns, has its quirky characters. There’s Maebelle Battersby, PSPD’s meter person (don’t let her hear you call her a “meter maid”—she’ll bop you a big one). There’s Maude Porterfield, the 70-something Justice of the Peace, who is hard of hearing but sharp as a Texas tack. In the early books, Bubba Harris was the sheriff, a typical Texan with “a Lone Star Beer belly that rolls out over his Lone Star belt buckle.”

And then there is Jonelle (in Rosemary Remembered) who has the biggest, reddest Big Hair there ever was. When China stares, dumbstruck, Jonelle says, in a kindly way, “Look, honey, I know my hair is bigger'n a tumbleweed, that I'm a walkin', talkin' beehive, an' when anybody at the office loses anything, the first place they're gonna look is in my hair. Does that about cover it?” “Actually,” China mutters, “I was thinking along the lines of the Towering Inferno.”

Quirky characters go a long way to characterize a place (Texas women are notorious for their Big Hair), but they also lighten the seriousness of a sometimes too-serious situation (a murder). They’re memorable—and they can move the story forward. Jonelle is hiding a serious clue under that Big Hair of hers.

A Dark Side

But as China likes to point out, Pecan Springs is not as “cozy” as it may seem to the casual observer. Small-town people are sometimes narrow-minded and parochial. Neighborly folks tend to snoop, and the Old Nueces Street Diner is a veritable gossip switchboard, where the speed of news is measured in nanoseconds. Snoopers and gossipers can be a danger to themselves and others.

And there’s crime, although the local newspaper did its best for years to cover up all the bad stuff. Now, the newspaper is under new management, and the dark side of Pecan Springs is headline news. Since the town is located on I-35, which carries drug traffic from Mexico to points north, a lot of the headlines have to do with drug-related crime. And since the most popular narcotics—marijuana, cocaine, opium—are herbs, China Bayles (as an herbalist) has a special interest in them. Read Spanish Dagger and Love Lies Bleeding for a look into the Texas criminal drug culture. (For a full list of China’s books, in the order of their publication, go here.)

There’s lots more to be said about creating small town settings, but you get the general idea. If you’re a reader, watch the way your favorite author uses the book’s setting to convey information, set expectations, and create a mood. If you’re a writer, try your hand at creating a small town. Give it a history, draw a map for it, people it with odd characters who have stories to tell, and see what you get. It just might be Grovers Corners, NH (Our Town); Whistlestop, AL (Fried Green Tomatoes); or Mitford, NC (Jan Karon’s Father Tim series). Or it might be something like Pecan Springs.

Thanks, Helen, for giving me a place to talk about my favorite small town. And thanks to all the readers who are following this blog tour through cyberspace. If you have questions or thoughts to share, post a comment. I’ll be away from my computer today (visiting the great small towns of Kerrville and Fredericksburg, TX), but I’ll be back on Friday to answer your questions.

About the book drawing and Susan’s blog tour

If you’d like to enter the drawing for a copy of Nightshade go here to register. But you’d better hurry. The drawing for Straight from Hel closes at noon on April 4, 2009.

Want to read the other posts in Susan’s blog tour? You’ll find a calendar and links here.

You can follow Susan on her blog tour by visiting the different blogs. If you enter at least 8 of the drawings along the way, you’ll be eligible for another drawing for an audio book of Bloodroot. Be sure to check out Nightshade in your local bookstore or library. Get a copy, sit back, and visit Pecan Springs.

Thank you so much, Susan.

Nightshade by Susan Witting Albert

First off, a few things about Susan Wittig Albert. She’s a phenomenal author who has written an amazing number of books. Okay, enough with the superlatives. Here are some facts: she’s a best-selling author; she writes multiple series; she writes both fiction and nonfiction; she’s the founder of the national organization, Story Circle Network.

Her latest book, Nightshade, is the sixteenth in her China Bayles mystery series. The books are popular with herbalists and those cooks who love using herbs because each book is anchored by an herb that’s related to the theme, the protagonist is an herbalist, and Susan includes lots of information about the featured herb as well as recipes. The books are popular with everyone else because they’re well-written.

I considered myself very lucky to have received an Advance Reading Copy of Nightshade. I have to admit, when I opened the package, one of the first things I did dance to my computer to email my sister to tell her. She’s a great fan of the series. The next thing I did was start reading.

Nightshade does not disappoint. Her characters, China, Ruby, McQuaid, and others, are like old friends. Even if it’s been years since you’ve read a China Bayles book, you can easily slide back into their lives. In addition to believable characters and interesting plots, Albert’s books really make use of their settings. Pecan Springs is totally real to the reader.

Quite a bit of Nightshade also takes place in Austin. I’ve lived in the Austin area for 21 years, and I learned things about my town that I didn’t know. For me, such discoveries were like little treasures.

Nightshade deals with secrets from China’s past. She has no choice but to dig into her father’s life and death. In the process of uncovering the secrets, she and McQuaid take you along on their quest for the truth and answers.

If you’re a fan of Susan Wittig Albert, her books, or her writing skill, you’ll want to come back to Straight From Hel on April 2nd when Susan will be the Featured Author. She’s stopping by on her blog book tour to speak on “Pecan Springs: Growing a Town.” Plus, just for Straight From Hel readers, there will be a drawing for a free book.

And don’t forget to come this Thursday when Lynda Sappington will be our March Featured Author. She’ll be talking about her writing, her art and her fantasy novel “Star Sons – Dawn of the Two.” (And Lynda will also be holding a drawing – for two of her books.)